Concarneau fish auction:species, seasons and how to get fish delivered

01

Two trades not to be confused

Sources: Ports de Cornouaille, Pavillon France, FranceAgriMer, national reports of France to the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission; editorial team's summary.

Concarneau presents itself as the leading tuna port in Europe: the vessel owners and the producer organisation for frozen tropical tuna have their head offices there. But this tuna (yellowfin and skipjack) does not appear in the sales of the fish auction, and a restaurateur or a fishmonger will not buy it from a Concarneau fish merchant (mareyeur). The figures on this page only concern fresh fish.

02

The Concarneau fish auction in figures

Source: FranceAgriMer, sales declared at fish auctions in 2024 (French vessels).

Little volume, a lot of value: Concarneau sells four times less than Lorient, but each kilo is worth €7.51 on average there, against €4.55 in Lorient and €2.76 in Boulogne-sur-Mer. Langoustine, octopus, line-caught fish and crustaceans pull the average up. Trawlers account for a little more than half of sales; gillnetters and potters for more than a quarter by value.

As elsewhere, landings are falling: 4,296 tonnes in 2015, 2,461 in 2024.

03

Which species can you find in Concarneau?

Source: FranceAgriMer, 2024 data; shares and ranks calculated by the editorial team on the total of French fish auctions.

Langoustine alone accounts for nearly a third of the value sold in Concarneau. Two details speak to the buyer. Red mullet sells there at €12.14/kg on average, almost double the national average (€6.53/kg): on a price list, compare it at equal size grade. And ring-net sardine (sardine de bolinche), which had amounted to 316 tonnes in 2023, fell to 39 tonnes in 2024: a species to watch from one year to the next.

04

When to buy what? The calendar of the leading species

The calendar marks the months of high landings, read from the monthly sales of all French fish auctions in 2024.

Prices often move against volumes. For langoustine, the national average price was around €10 to €12/kg in spring 2024, then around €19/kg from August to November and €22/kg in December. For European lobster, it fell to €21 to €23/kg from May to July, at the height of landings, and exceeded €40/kg in December. For octopus, the highest prices come in August and December, two months of low landings.

05

How does the sale work?

The sale takes place Monday to Saturday, in the morning at 5:30 am (Société des pêches de Cornouaille), at the fish auction on the Quai Carnot, right in the town centre opposite the Ville Close (walled town). It is automated: the lots go by on conveyors. Seven fish merchants are based on the port. Bidding is reserved for buyers declared to the auction (Article D932-9 of the French rural code).

The port has belonged to the Brittany Region since 2017; the Syndicat mixte des ports de pêche-plaisance de Cornouaille is its port authority. Since 1 January 2026, the six fish auctions of Cornouaille (Concarneau, Le Guilvinec, Loctudy, Saint-Guénolé, Audierne, Douarnenez) have been operated by the Société des pêches de Cornouaille, a local public company that took over the role of the CCI Finistère.

06

The fish merchants of Concarneau

Concarneau fish merchants buy in the auction hall, but also at the neighbouring fish auctions: Le Guilvinec and Loctudy are about forty kilometres away by road, Lorient less than an hour's drive. This is an advantage for the buyer: the same supplier can make up a shipment with langoustine from Concarneau, monkfish from Le Guilvinec and hake from Lorient.

Their work: choosing lots, sorting, grading, preparing, icing or keeping in live tanks, packing and shipping. Most send a price list to their customers. The price list guide explains how to read it and compare those of several suppliers.

We do not publish a list of fish merchants. Company profiles will come with their agreement.

07

How to get fish delivered from Concarneau?

For an importer, the pattern is the same up to departure: the fish merchant prepares, and the freight forwarder takes over to the airport. A page dedicated to export is planned in our English section.